Students before sequesters: Western

The automatic federal budget cuts set to take effect on Friday will not be allowed to block any student from attending Western Washington University in Bellingham, WWU President Bruce Shepard announced Tuesday.

Western will “draw upon institutional reserves to provide funding if “any awards of federal financial aid” to its students “be reduced as a result of federal sequestration,” WWU Senior Vice President Eileen Coughlin said in a letter to students.

A fact sheet, released Monday by the White House, estimated that 440 fewer low-income students in Washington would get aid to help finance the cost of college.

In addition, 180 fewer Washington college students will get work-study jobs to help them pay for college.

Shepard’s stand may be symbolic, since it is impossible to know how many Western students will be impacted. Having endured steep tuition hikes, however, the WWU student government bathed the university administration in praise.

They also took a jab at Congress for its inaction heading off the sequestrations. The U.S. House of Representatives has been at work in Washington, D.C., just 21 of 57 days this year.

“At a time when certain representatives in Congress would rather see harm inflicted to our education and our economy than practice responsible governance, it is heartening that our administration has shown the willingness to put students and their success first,” said the Associated Students of Western Washington University.

Explaining his action, Western President Bruce Shepard said:

“This is the right thing to do. The university is strongly committed to our students’ success, and is consistently looking for ways to enhance access and affordability.”

In the annual U.S. News & World Report survey on U.S. colleges, Western is the highest ranking master’s-granting public university in the Northwest, and one of the highest in the West.